Appomattox: Collapse of the Confederate Dream

Siege and surrender in the early spring of 1865. Union General Ulysses S. Grant has hammered Lee's Army of Northern Virginia into a shadow of its former self. Throughout the winter of 1864-65 the armies suffered in the trenches around Richmond and Petersburg. Finally, Lee tried to break out. Grant pursued. They tangled at Sayler's Creek where the larger Union army captured nearly a third of Lee's men. Escape was not possible. Lee knew the end had come and surrendered his valiant army at Appomattox on April 9, 1865